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January 5, 2015 (Week 31)

The new stresses I’m facing would be the size of the sector. It has got to be at least 8 times bigger than El Castillo, making it very overwhelming. We get an extra 20 mil pesos a month to pay for Micro rides, but walking it takes us about 1/2 an hour to just get to where most of the work is. And it’s all up hill, because we butt right up against the mountains. We took a walk all the way up to almost the top of the sector to do a loop through the rich part, and it took us about 3 hours to do it.

The good news is that this sector is way richer than El Castillo. The poorest part here is in better shape than the richest part of El Castillo, so I started wearing my good watch and carrying my camera around. The rich part up on the mountain in incredibly rich. If they aren’t living in a really nice condominium, they have a house about the same size as the Atkins. Big change there. In fact, the Presidenta of Chile lives in our sector. On that street, there was a whole bunch of cops stationed to keep her safe or something.

My comp is my district leader, and the other two elders I live with are the Zone Leaders for La Reina. That should be interesting. Elder Granda is a cool guy. He’s very spiritual. Apparently, one time he did 3 fasts in a row, only eating lunches. The other elders said he almost died. He’s very concerned about serving with all his heart, and he often will just stop and pray without telling me. He’s pretty serious, as he went through military school, and really, we aren’t all that different. We can get each other laughing. He’s pretty nervous about being a district leader, especially since our district is only sisters and he hasn’t talked to a girl his age for almost 18 months now.

The ward is pretty big for Chile. About 130 people attend every Sunday, although 170 people were there when I had to talk and bare my testimony yesterday. We have a mission leader, which is awesome, and he actually wants to work, which is even better. Our bishop is good, but he doesn’t trust us. Apparently, the Elder I replaced, was kind of a weird guy, and they didn’t get along.

The worst part so far is how everyone is treating me. Not everyone, but a lot of people. For example, on Tuesday, we went to this woman’s house, and when she saw me, she started tearing up because I wasn’t Elder Mora. It’s happened more than once, and it’s awful. They see me when I get to their house, and their faces kind of fall and they ask us if we had changes, which is kind of a stupid question, then they talk to me a little, but it’s obvious that they wish that Elder Mora was still here. I think it is because he was there for 10 months and will finish his mission in two more changes, and no one thought he was going to leave, so it came as a surprise to them. That, and he was Chilean.

Still working hard despite all that. I can see how this sector can progress, and it should be an interesting test for my shoes. Love you all.

Elder Mathewson

That is a mansion that people live in, with my pinky to narrate it´s mansion-ness.

Here are some drawings I did of Jim Walken, in case you are interested.

Obviously we didn’t stay up intentionally until New Years, but our bed time is at 11:30, so it wasn’t that hard to do it by accident. We moved my bed right when I got here to the window, and as we are on the 4th floor of our apartment, and I sleep on the top bunk because I’m the newb, I got to see all the fireworks go off at 12 across the whole city. It super cool. What wasn’t so cool was all the people shooting their champaign bottles, and everybody cussing at the top of their lungs, and how hot it was that night, making me not able to sleep. It’s super hot right now, and i’s been a bit of a struggle to get sleep. In fact, I literally couldn’t stay awake during church because I was so tired.

Elder Mathewson

(note from Pam – I think maybe Connor didn’t get my email this week and I didn’t receive anything from him. It may be my new computer, I haven’t worked out all the new glitches. The post is comprised of excerpts from the emails to Todd, his dad and Ethan, his brother. Hopefully next week, we will hear more.)

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One thought on “January 5, 2015 (Week 31)”

We went to see the Hobbit for New Year’s Eve. They have mastered the use of 3D now and it was very well done. Each movie seems to have gotten better. I also really enjoyed it, in fact I was able to watch most of the movie. Only about 5 to 10 minutes of it was too suspenseful or gory for me to watch. Unlike you, we are very cold right now and blanketed in snow. I think cold is easier to deal with over extreme heat. What a contrast in life style, maybe not culture, but certainly life style for you to see. I am glad it is safer for you although as you have said you are protected as a missionary. When our son Justin was in the Las Vegas Nevada mission he saw complete contrast like that. He went from the slum ghetto area to the richest area in his mission. He said it was hard to tract the rich areas because everyones homes were gated or fortresses where you couldn’t even get to the doors. He loved both areas though and found many good things about both. It probably helped that Gladys Knight would have them over for breakfast a lot. We have assessments now in Seminary each Semester. Our first one is next Monday. There are 32 multiple choice questions and an explain doctrine section and an essay question. All good, but different from when you went. We talked about D&C 65 today ” a stone rolling forth to cover the earth”. You are part of that in a big way right now. Thank you Connor for giving two years of your life completely to the Lord’s service. Noble and valiant of you to say the least! I pray for you often and so enjoy your emails.